I agree its annoying, personally I hate them. They usually serve to allow for automatic roll-away protection. On new Jeep Latitudes they come on automatically

I agree its annoying, personally I hate them. They usually serve to allow for automatic roll-away protection. On new Jeep Latitudes they come on automatically when the vehicle senses you have the vehicle running and are stopped, with the door open, or neutral. Owners like the hand holding ... it's a Jeep thing. It does increase the price a little bit and if you do not have an OBDII scan tool and need to buy one. If you operate the EPB maintenance mode very incorrectly it is possible to damage the EPB mechanism. They're pretty easy to operate and replace if you know what you're doing.